Many display mechanisms present information in two-dimensional grids. For example, television program guides often show programming schedules as a grid of cells that each represent a particular program, where users can scroll through the grid up and down to view various channels, and can scroll right and left to view programs at different times. Various forms of information can also be displayed in spreadsheet grids, such as financial data and mathematical information.
Frequently, information displayed in these manners cannot be shown conveniently on a single display—particularly on small displays. And in such conditions, it may be distracting or even annoying to have to pan back and forth or up and down to locate other information that is relevant to a user. Some spreadsheets permit a user to hide certain rows or columns of a spreadsheet to make the remaining information fit more easily on a display screen or sheet of paper. In a similar manner, interactive electronic program guides may permit a user to define “favorite” channels, so that only those channels are displayed in a programming grid shown to the user.